- IN THIS ISSUE:
- * Nokia 6600
I am late sending out the February issue of MEOW! as I wanted to include a little announcement: I have just started on an engagement to work with Macromedia, heading up mobile content acquisition. As some of you certainly saw, Macromedia demonstrated their FlashCast product at GSMWorld in Cannes. The new unit Macromedia Mobile is headed up since January by ex-Microsoft Juha Christensen. Flash is already very popular on handsets in Japan and a lot of momentum is now building up towards enabling the nearly one million Flash developers to produce mobile content. If you have any ideas, questions, content proposals or recommentations please so not hesitate to contact me.
That aside, MEOW! will continue as before as my personal and independent channel to the loyal subscribers. I am happy to see many new subscriptions again in the past month.
Best regards,
- Tapio Anttila
- tapio@anttila.net
INDUSTRY CONSOLIDATION: WHO WILL DRIVE NEW SERVICES?
So, Cingular Wireless got to acquire AT&T Wireless and soon many of us will be in their home town Atlanta at CTIA, wondering what the new entity will do. Will the Cingular mobile content people come out from the hiding or will the mMode people get to keep their jobs? Will this enhance the role of companies like mForma and Infospace who can possibly provide some continuity as third parties? My take is that the new giant combo will be a painful integration on most counts, Verizon and T-Mobile will continue to gain ground and Vodafone will be able bid again two years from now. Congratulations to all AT&T shareholders - the management made the right decision when moving to GSM and it is reflected in the enterprise value, customers come in second…
CANNES: THE OPTIMISM BUILDS UP
Remember that feeling when you were really sick and finally recovered from it? Your system just wants to celebrate, start to rebuild your health from the ground up, building resistance to new diseases. That describes well the sentiment of the global GSM industry right now: the players do not fully understand how to build the market but there is a sincere intent to use some sanity and common sense going forward, to act responsibly.
WHOSE CONTENT IS IT, ANYWAY?
My wireless entrepreneur friend in the urban hip-hop lifestyle genre called me the other day. He was telling me that the ringtone services company Zingy is selling wallpapers and screensavers featuring the infamous LA gangs The Bloods and The Crips. According to him, the gang members have be highly disappointed and fail to understand how their brand has been included in a commercial offering without asking them first or arranging them to get a revenue share. They are indeed planning to come to discuss this with Zingy at CTIA. I wish this were an April Fool’s story…
PICKS FROM THE US MOBILE ENTERTAINMENT SCENE
Arista Records recording artist Avril Lavigne will play shopping mall concerts in 21 U.S. cities that will be organized via “flash mobs,” or brief, impromptu gatherings organized via email, message boards and blogs. Fans in the cities Lavigne will visit can sign up on her website to participate in the flash mobs, but will not be informed of the time or location of the performances until 48 hours prior. However, the concerts will also be announced on radio stations and on AOL’s Digital City websites. - What an innovative way to promote an artist! I feel this is going to be a norm in mobile-integrated entertainment marketing in the future.
http://www.avrillavigne.net
PICKS FROM THE WORLD MOBILE ENTERTAINMENT SCENE
- As Rafat Ali from MocoNews quite rightly pointed out in his newsletter (www.moconews.net), it is amazing how the dotcom/mobile bubble in China keeps going strong and produces mobile horoscope company IPOs on NASDAQ. Linktone of Shanghai has recently announced their IPO. The approximately 300 million mobile phone users in China are causing US media companies pay serious attention to them.
- http://www.forbes.com/home_asia/newswire/2004/03/02/rtr1283625.html
(Los Angeles) Mobile Scape AG, a German publisher of mobile entertainment content, announced on Wednesday the establishment of U.S. operations in Los Angeles. The company named Cathy Tische as senior vice president of sales and marketing for Mobile Scope Inc., responsible for all sales and marketing activities in North America.
http://www.mobilescape.com
In addition to Virgin Mobile USA and blah!, another 6-8 MVNOs (1-2 per nationwide mobile network) will be launched in the U.S. over the next few years. The MVNO expansion could include a Vodafone-owned MVNO that is based on its popular Vodafone Live! service. Given that AT&T Corporation will retain the AT&T Wireless brand (post-acquisition) and has recently indicated that it will re-enter the wireless market, it may also re-launch the brand as an MVNO.
– Ringtones: 10 per cent of the market for music (via Ringtonia): Another one of those “gee-this-really-happened-while-we’re-sleeping” stories on the huge ringtones market…
Some figures, to reiterate: The worldwide ringtone market was worth $3.5 billion last year, up 40 per cent from 2002 and representing about 10 per cent of the global music market, according to estimates from U.K.-based research firm ARC Group. Most of those sales have taken place in Europe and Asia, where mobile phone markets are more mature. ARC predicts global sales will surpass $5.2 billion by 2008.
Closer to home, ringtones are gaining momentum. IDC estimates that by 2007 ringtones will be a $1 billion market in the U.S.
At the end of last year, eight million Chinese residents subscribed to MMS, and experts believe MMS for mobile subscribers will expand to an industry worth 22 billion dollars by 2008, according to Xinhua.
MMS growth is weak compared to WAP and WAP will continue to outpace it. WAP never took off anywhere in the world except S. Korea (and I guess you could argue that i-Mode is WAPesque) but with the GPRS and CDMA 1.X networks, WAP has legs here in China: in Jan04 WAP had 45mRMB in revs: 8m subs at CM with 28mRMB in revs and 2.3m subs at CU with 17mRMB in revs.
Listeners to UK radio station Galaxy will be able to send
in pics to DJs from cameraphones. They will be first radio
station to use MMS with Flytxt\’s inbound MMS platform.
http://www.160characters.org/news.php?action=view&nid=999
(Toronto) Wireless application developer Tira Wireless said on Tuesday that wireless game publisher THQ Wireless will use its Tira Jump solution for porting Java-based games to a range of devices. Toronto-based Tira said the technology works by automatically generating multiple builds of a J2ME application across a broad range of handsets, languages and mobile operator requirements, all from a single reference application.
http://www.thqwireless.com
http://www.tirawireless.com
(Bordeaux, France) In-Fusio, a mobile game publisher and developer of mobile game technology, said on Wednesday that it has ported its ExEn Gaming Extensions (EGE) to Qualcomm’s BREW platform for wireless devices. The technology can be used by developers to create real-time multiplayer interactivity, enhanced 3D game play and vector-based animations, and the ability to recommend a game to a friend. France-based In-Fusio’s game titles include “The Terminator” and “Golden Tee Golf.”
http://www.in-fusio.com
Mention Mobile Economy Conference in the next MEOW!
Disney Mobile to Offer Content to Vodafone Subscribers in 14 Countries N
orth Hollywood, Calif. — Walt Disney Internet Group on Monday announced an agreement with wireless network operator Vodafone, to provide Disney Mobile services to Vodafone customers in 14 international markets. Disney-branded content — based on both live-action and animated properties — including logos, wallpapers, animated wallpapers and mobile games will now be available to Vodafone subscribers in Australia; Egypt; Germany; Greece; Hungary; Ireland; Italy; Malta; The Netherlands; New Zealand; Portugal; Spain; Sweden and Switzerland.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/040301/15240_1.html
http://www.vodafone.com
http://disney.go.com/disneymobile
(Santa Monica, Calif.) Mforma, a publisher and distributor of mobile entertainment content, said on Monday that it has partnered with CBS SportsLine.com to create mobile sports products for wireless subscribers. Santa Monica, Calif.-based Mforma will create 18 arcade-style games for sports including baseball, track & field, golf, boxing, football, basketball and hockey; wireless versions of SportsLine.com’s online fantasy sports products; and a subscription content product that will offer breaking news, scores and statistics.
http://www.sportsline.com
http://www.mforma.com
INDUSTRY ANALYSIS
A European industry consortium ACTEN has published a very insightful new report on the mobile gaming industry.
http://www.acten.net/cgi-bin/WebGUI/www/index.pl/mobile_games
EVENTS CALENDAR
The smart phone
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Disclaimer: Opinions presented herein are those of the undersigned and do not represent the position or message of any company I might be affiliated with.
